Pondexter, Vaughn lead Liberty to East finals

Sep 2, 2010 - 3:42 AM
By VIN A. CHERWOO
AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Despite finishing with a franchise playoff
record for scoring, Cappie Pondexter gave Kia Vaughn all the
credit for helping the New York Liberty advance to the Eastern
Conference finals.

Pondexter scored 30 points, including a tiebreaking jumper with
28 seconds remaining, and Vaughn had a season-high 13 points in
extended playing time to lead the Liberty to a 77-74 victory
over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night in the decisive Game 3
of their East semifinal series.

"She was amazing," Pondexter said of Vaughn. "My whole career,
her whole career I've never seen Kia play like that. If she
didn't play like that, we definitely wouldn't be here advancing
to the next round. Her performance was one of the best and
amazing."

The two played together in college at Rutgers alongside Essence
Carson, who added 11 points for the Liberty. New York reached
the conference finals for the second time in three years where
the Liberty will face Atlanta in the East finals beginning
Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

The Liberty were without starting center Janel McCarville,
sidelined by a sprained left ankle. Plenette Pierson started in
her place and finished with eight points in 23 minutes, and
Vaughn played a season-high 26 minutes.

"No one told me I was going to play as much as I did," said
Vaughn, who has averaged about 10 minutes per game her first two
seasons in the league. "I'm happy because that lets me know I
did something great.

Katie Douglas scored 24 points, Tamika Catchings had 21 and
Ebony Hoffman added 13 for the Fever, who fell to 0-7 in
postseason series in which they didn't have home-court
advantage, including last year's WNBA finals loss to Phoenix.

After Pondexter made her go-ahead jumper from the right side of
the basket while going out of bounds, Catchings missed a driving
layup 4 seconds later and Taj McWilliams-Franklin grabbed the
rebound off the side of the rim.

The Liberty called timeout, but were called for a 5-second
violation on the ensuing inbounds play, turning the ball over to
the Fever. Catchings missed another layup with 12.9 seconds to
go, McWilliams-Franklin again corralled the rebound and passed
to Vaughn, who was fouled by Douglas.

Fever coach Lin Dunn believed Catchings was fouled on both layup
attempts and did not hesitate to criticize the officials.

"I'm very disappointed that Eric (Brewton), Denise (Brooks) and
Lamont (Simpson) did not call a foul when Tamika drove to the
rim the first time, and the second time," Dunn said. "It's
unfortunate that the players did not get to finish the game on
their own."

Catchings, however, put the blame on herself.

"Things happen and regardless of whether you get fouled or not,
I didn't finish two layups," she said. "Doesn't matter. I take
the blame. You got to hit those shots."

Vaughn then made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the Liberty's lead
to three points, and Indiana's Briann January missed a potential
tying 3 with 3.9 seconds left.

In both of New York's wins in the series a reserve player took
advantage of extra playing time. In Game 1 it was Essence
Carson, who scored 17 points. This time, it was Vaughn. Both
stressed the importance of staying focused and being ready when
called on.

"I just pretty much had to come in, and just be myself, be
aggressive and attack the boards," Vaughn said. "I knew it was
hard with Janel not out there. My teammates and coaches, they
believe in me. I've been working hard in practice and it showed
out on the court."

Trailing by five earlier in the fourth quarter, the Liberty
rallied in a low-scoring period - New York outscored Indiana
14-8 - and took a 74-72 lead on Pondexter's three-point play
with 1:14 remaining.

"I live for moments like these as a basketball player," said
Pondexter, who eclipsed her own franchise postseason record of
28 points she set in Game 1 of this series. "When I'm in the gym
working out, I think about moments like this, to prepare myself
mentally. ... I just took it upon myself to take over (down the
stretch)."

Hoffman rebounded her own missed layup and put it back to tie
the score 24 seconds later.

Douglas scored nine points in the third quarter - on two 3s and
three free throws - as the Fever, who led 47-46 at halftime,
increased their advantage to seven points on three occasions.
The last time came when Catchings made 1 of 2 free throws to
make it 66-59 with 1 1/2 minutes left in the period.

Pondexter had a layup about 15 seconds later and
McWilliams-Franklin had a basket with under 32 seconds left to
pull the Liberty to 66-63 heading to the fourth quarter.